BBC secretly rehires nine top earners after handing them huge payoffs when they left, FOI reveals

The BBC secretly rehired some of its biggest earners months after giving them thousands of pounds in severance payments, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Nine of 91 staff who earned £100,000 or more, and received a payoff between January 2010 and June 2013, are now back working for the corporation as freelances or on short-term contracts, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

As freelancers often enjoy higher rates of pay than full-time staff because of a potential lack of job security, some of those re-engaged may have even been paid the equivalent of more than the six-figure salary they drew before they left.

I am a journalist and author. I am a staff writer at the UK edition of WIRED magazine and in 2015 my book, Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. I created FOI Directory in 2012.